Reading the Quaker article, it seems to me that a significant element of the anti-Semitic interpretation hangs on the understanding of the phrase "holy people". According to one of the earlier posts, in the Hebrew bible this phrase is used to describe the Jewish people. However, I have never come this expression in general English usage ("chosen people", yes), and I doubt that most people who are not Jewish or bible scholars would put this interpretation on it. I have always taken it at face value - the religious authorities who objected to Jesus's activities.

Would most people hearing the song understand it to be a veiled attack on the Jews? I doubt it. Does a somewhat obscure interpretation which apparently took more than 30 years to come to light make it anti-semitic? I don't think so.

That's easy for me to say - I'm not Jewish. But it occurs to me that to get worked up over this, when there are many real and serious examples of anti-semitism, shows a misplaced sense of priorities.